Huntsville TIMES: HGH English teacher turns to 'Star Wars' trilogy to help students understand the epic

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English teacher turns to 'Star Wars' trilogy to help students understand the epic
Monday, April 07, 2008
By PAT NEWCOMBTimes Staff Writer

Luke Skywalker is not just a character in a series of films to David Golden, an English teacher and football coach at Hazel Green High School. The Jedi knight is an epic hero, whose rise, fall and redemption are part of a story rife with classic archetypes we all know through our collective unconscious as described by the psychologist Carl Jung.
Seriously.
Each semester, Golden's ninth-grade students watch the original trilogy of the Star Wars movies, with Golden pointing out the situational, character and symbolic archetypes as well as literary elements.
In the cave scene in "Return of the Jedi," Luke faces off against Darth Vader (which means dark knight in German, Golden told his students).
"It's foggy, dense," Golden said, pausing the scene. "What's the main color?" Gray, his students said. That's symbolic for confusion, which is what Luke feels at this point as he tries to learn to control "the Force."
The cave itself is also symbolic - "think back to 'Tom Sawyer,' Golden said - a place where the character undergoes change, emerging a different person than the one who went in.
It's also where Luke first sees that his connection to Darth Vader is more than just as an enemy.
"What literary element is that," Golden said before resuming the DVD. "Foreshadowing."
Ninth-graders study the epic, which usually means reading Homer's "The Odyssey." Golden, however, "fell asleep when I studied 'The Odyssey.' I don't remember much about it."
Golden, a self-professed "Star Wars nut," first got the idea of teaching the epic through Star Wars at a seminar at Western Kentucky University. He was teaching in Tennessee at the time, and attended a program to certify him as advanced placement English teacher.
"I've been doing it 10 years and it's still a big hit," Golden said, which is obvious by the rapt attention his students pay to the movie and the answers they give to Golden's constant questions throughout the viewing.
He even equipped his classroom with surround-sound speakers, expressly for the Star Wars movies.
"As a teacher, you've got to find creative ways to get kids involved," said Golden, who is the older brother of Daniel Golden, the Huntsville police officer who was killed while on duty in 2005.
From the classic good versus evil story to the star-crossed lovers (Princess Leia and Han Solo), the Star Wars movies tap into just about every major literary construct.
When Haylee Johnson was in eighth grade, she heard she would have to watch the Star Wars movies if she was in Golden's class.
"I thought it was the dumbest thing I had ever heard," Haylee said. Her dad had been trying to get her to watch the movies with him, and she had always refused, completely uninterested in them.
She's paid close attention to the movies in class, though. Golden's comments throughout the movies also helped her make the connections to the literary elements.
"I didn't realize there was so much English in Star Wars," she said.
Jason McDaniel thought the movies would be "corny," but watching them has helped him "break things down," giving him a way to relate the archetypes.
"There's more to Star Wars than just light sabers and lasers," he said.
Jason said he may even go back and watch the movies for the parts they skipped in class. His dad has the whole collection, and "they're not bad for an old movie."
Golden wants the Star Wars unit to be taken seriously. The students spend about two weeks on it, watching the movies and taking extensive notes. They also compile a portfolio, which includes a packet with descriptions of the archetypes, a comparison to the Arthurian legend and other elements, all their notes, a completed study guide and a completed practice test.
The students then take a tough test that includes short answers and two, five-paragraph essay questions about the character of Luke Skywalker and places of action. It takes the students two days to complete the test, Golden said.
"As a teacher, you've got to find creative ways to get the kids involved," Golden said. Through the movies, "They're actually learning literary elements, and they're having fun, too."